Backstory

If writing is your career, you're never really resting on your laurels. For instance, this week, I'm continuing to prep and format the print version of Death by Equine and juggle the marketing side of its impending release. I'm revising and rewriting a chunk of Fatal Reunion (the next Zoe mystery) following Sunday's meeting with my critique group. And I'm working on the first book in the new series, which my agent has out on submission. 

The location of the new series

"Working on" doesn't really mean "writing" at this point. Sure I have three chapters and a synopsis completed. Those are what are out on submission. I'm eager to pick up at chapter four and start putting words on the page. However, I'm not quite there yet.

When I'm offering a critique on a new writer's first few chapters, nine times out of ten I find the story doesn't truly begin until page 25. Or page 30. Or page 50. Prior to that, the writer is laying out the backstory. The history of the characters and their relationships leading up to the inciting incident or trigger that starts the action. Or maybe there are pages and pages of description of the scenery so we, the readers, will understand where the story is set. When I post a comment on page 25 (or 30 or 50) stating, "This is the beginning of your book," too often the writer feels they've wasted their time on that chunk of pages.

They haven't. They, the writer, need to know this stuff. The reader does not. At least not yet.

A story should open in the moments or hours before the trigger, at which point something happens. Someone dies. A stranger comes to town. Something rocks the main character's boat. Yes, the reader will have questions. Who is this person? What's going on? But if the story's action is intriguing, the reader will keep turning the page to find the answers. The moment the reader has no more questions is the moment they put the book down.

But as I said, the writer does need to know who the characters are. What drives them. What their secrets are. Where they live and where they grew up. That is what I'm working on right now with the new book.

I've been writing pages and pages about the two main characters, their childhoods, their family histories, their heartaches and triumphs. I've been writing pages and pages about several of the secondary characters. And I've been writing pages and pages about the villain. His motivation. His goals. How he came to be in the position he's in. Why and how he chose the course of action he did. 

Will this go into the opening chapters of the book? Oh, hell, no. Most of it will never be seen by anyone's eyes but my own. Honestly, that makes the backstory process a lot of fun. I can break all the grammar and punctuation rules and never be called out. No inner editor! 

And after several days of getting to know the backstory, I have a greater understanding of everyone involved. That is what will show up on the page.